“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one’s opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

We can be knowledgable with other men’s knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men’s wisdom.

The public weal requires that men should betray, and lie, and massacre.

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.

Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.

The prank of a page- boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk – they are all part of the curriculum.

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.

I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man’s estate.

It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

Most children threaten at times to run away from home. This is the only thing that keeps some parents going.

Courage is the only Magic worth having.

Words have weight, sound and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to.

But that is the only thing that slows me down is the system. No one, two or three was big enough to slow me down, only the system. It was the system that slowed me down to make my numbers fall. Not because I am older.

It’s no good trying to keep up old friendships. It’s painful for both sides. The fact is, one grows out of people, and the only thing is to face it.

It is only when a man feels himself face to face with such horrors that he can understand their true import.

The only difference between men and women is that women are able to create new little human beings in their bodies while simultaneously writing books, driving tractors, working in offices, planting crops – in general, doing everything men do.

I always wondered how I could tell when the right one came along – but it was easy. He was the only one that came along.